1996:285 - DUNDALK: Mary Street North, Louth

The site was located on the western side of Mary Street, Dundalk, to the immediate north-east of the ESB offices. A linen mill comprising a maze of small buildings and rooms to the north and a relatively open courtyard to the south was in the process of being demolished to make way for the new development. The upstanding buildings hampered the on-site testing of this initial assessment, although the developer had partially demolished some of the buildings to allow restricted access to the north of the site.

Mary Street is located in the Seatown area of Dundalk, which became an important monastic suburb of Dundalk with the foundation of two friaries in the area–St Leonard’s in the late twelfth century, and the Grey Abbey in 1240. There had been a possibility that a graveyard, with perhaps an associated enclosure, crossed the development area.

Six trenches were mechanically excavated in the limited area available for testing. Three trenches in the north of the site produced no significant archaeological remains. A fourth trench produced a large rubbish-pit, clearly post-medieval in date. The natural subsoil was reached here at only 0.8m below present ground level, suggesting that the original groundwork for the mill would probably have obliterated most of the archaeology (if any had occurred) in this northern area.

Two trenches along the south-east of the site revealed an old ground surface-peat-like brown organic material underlying sterile blue clay. Its discovery in the two trenches suggests that it covered a fairly extensive area. During the medieval period the site would have been located very close to the southern bank of the Castletown River estuary and as a result would have been very waterlogged and marshy. This old peat-like ground surface is most probably naturally occurring marshy ground, but further study would need to be carried out to resolve its true nature, date, extent and complexity.

There was an apparent linear feature of blue/grey clay cutting across the west of one trench in the south-west of the site. The trench, however, was very unstable and continually collapsed in on itself, rendering fuller recording of this feature impossible. However, the position of this possible feature in relation to the old graveyard and friary was noted, with the result that an ecclesiastical connection cannot be discounted.

A second assessment took place to investigate the apparent linear feature located in the south-west of the site. The ground level had been reduced by removal of the overlying hard-core and infill, allowing stable trench sides. Although the blue/grey clay was located it was not archaeologically significant, being estuarine in origin.